NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 1, 2017): Start the Year with a Word Square Puzzle:
Q: Take the four-letter men's names TODD, OMAR, DAVE and DREW. If you write them one under the other, they'll form a word square, spelling TODD, OMAR, DAVE and DREW reading down as well.
Can you construct a word square consisting of five five-letter men's names? Any such square using relatively familiar men's names will count. Will has an answer using four relatively common names and one less familiar one.
This
list of 5-letter names or this
list of 5-letter boys names should help you get started.
A: Will's intended answer was:
KEMAL
EMILE
MILAN
ALAIN
LENNY
One of the many possible answers, and the answer of the person chosen to play on the air was:
ABRAM
BLANE
RANDY
ANDRE
MEYER
Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.
ReplyDeleteYou may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.
Or try THIS LIST.
ReplyDeleteNice! Added to the original post. That list has just boys names and includes popularity.
DeleteOK, I got an answer on this one, with a fifth name that is obscure but some guys have it. For now, over and out. ---Rob
ReplyDeleteAre your names in the lists above?
DeleteI hope your hint isn't a misdirection.
DeleteFour of the names are on the list; that fifth one is a real name, but real obscure. ---Rob
DeleteRob - That description fits the answers I've got.
DeleteWith my blog tile one would think I'd have no problem with this puzzle...keep thinking.
ReplyDeleteA letter analysis of the five-letter male first names in IMDB's actor database reveals that letters overrepresented in these names (compared to standard English text) are (in order) K, Y, J, M, R, L, and B, and underrepresented letters are T, H, W, C, and P. That is, compared to the standard ETAOINSHRDL… letter frequency, these names have a frequency of AIENROLSMTYDKHUBCJGVPFZWXQ. In this analysis I excluded names that appeared less than four times, which pared it down from about 21,000 uniques names to about 4,600.
ReplyDeleteHere's the raw data, sorted by frequency counts.
Then one needs to cull the female names.
DeleteWhat? No, the list is pulled from IMDB's male actor list. That's already done.
DeleteI can't help but think that your time and talents might be better spent trying to hack into the 上海证券交易所. On the other hand, maybe you're already doing that, and you only visit here for the amusement value.
DeleteIn any case, Happy New Year, PC!
(And all my other frenemies, of course.)
'Word squares generally bore me; I am reminded of Samuel Johnson's comparison of a woman preacher with a dog that has learned to stand on its hind legs: "It is not done well; yet you are surprised to find it done at all."' - Willard R. Espy
ReplyDeleteGee, does the relative quiet here mean that no one has a square drawn from five names on the given lists? I am thinking that my fifth name is so obscure that it will be ruled out - and that's OK with me, I don't have to hunt anymore. ---Rob
ReplyDeleteYou may have to copy and paste this link, titled on TYWKIWDBI : "Trump administration heads toward Washington," but I think you will like it.
ReplyDeletehttps://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P6UN966D88M/WGkt8e99g9I/AAAAAAAAmrA/D6m1Dn6Vhg0j-pLWGFI3QAb7KfROlgPugCLcB/s1600/train.jpg
I copied and pasted and all I got was a picture of a train on fire?
DeleteI want my vote back!
Actually, I'd probably cast it the same way, so never mind.
DeleteI did the best I could. Maybe it's the new year, but I thought this one was rather tough.
ReplyDeleteI have no interest in spending my time on this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteOpting out this week.
DeleteOn the air, Will said he changed the format of his year-end news quiz partly because he could not think of “many good names that sprang into the news during the previous 12 months.” I bet that as a group we could come up with quite a nice list of such names. In the hope that some of you would like to join me in this endeavor, here are 10 names to start the list:
ReplyDeleteMerrick Garland
Evan McMullin
Paolo Gentilioni
Chris Thile
Colin Kaepernick
Boaty McBoatface
Pokemon Go
Khizr Khan
Harambe
Kenneth Bone
Ammon Bundy
DeleteSandra Bland
Luke Aikins
Theresa May
Park Geun-hye
Ieshia Evans
DeleteOh, and regarding this week's puzzle, I agree with SDB. Not the way I want to spend the initial hours (or days) of the new year.
ReplyDeleteWhen solved there is no reward, such as, "Oh, I never realized that!" Or anything worthwhile at all, just that a tedious exercise was solved and nothing learned in the process. Great way to begin what promises to be a really crappy new year.
DeleteSDB, I agree, and feel the same about the change in NYT crosswords which seem to have many acronyms and foolish phrase constructions. Little worth remembering
DeleteAfter spending the whole day on this, I have a solution with 4 good names and 1 name that is so obscure I can find only one person on the interwebs with this spelling.
ReplyDeleteWell, Will is asking a yes/no question. Can you construct a word square using 5 relatively familiar men's names? The correct answer might be "no".
ReplyDeleteBonus points if you can also make it a palindrome, like the Sator Square.
DeleteNo Sator answers with halfway recognizable names. My database creates a total of two Sator squares, but on closer inspection each contains one or more names that are more traditionally female. I guess there are technically men with those names, but it wouldn't hold up in the court of puzzle opinion.
DeleteLike others here have said, I don't like word square puzzles and never try to solve them. Waste of time.
ReplyDeleteOoh, I like my chances this week.
DeletePC: Sounds like you had another exercise in computer programming. My idea of an acceptable solution would be if all 5 names were in the top 250 (or so) list of modern men's names. Any luck??
DeleteI wrote a little awk script to solve this one. The two lists that Blaine mentioned at the top contain 870 unique names between them. Now, no one should claim that all 870 are common (or even men's names at all), but using those, my script found 253 valid 5x5 squares. (Oddly, the first one found includes the name "Blane".) None of the squares uses 5 common male names. The hard part will be deciding which is the most reasonable one to submit.
ReplyDeleteI am not working this one, but before I got outta bed Sunday I thought of Blaine as a possible starting point but quickly realized it was six letters.
DeleteJan: I'd be interested in seeing your script (after the deadline, of course). Thanks.
DeleteGetting close to throwing in the towel!,
ReplyDeleteI stopped doing the laundry this weekend after I threw in the towels.
DeleteIf Michael Jackson had adopted another child after Blanket, he very well may have named him Towel. Or, perhaps Blanket will change his name to Towel when he reaches adulthood. What a messed-up childhood he must have had. Just imagine all the crap he had to absorb.
DeletePoor Blanket has apparently already changed his name....to "BIGI". I looked it up.
DeleteLike others here I have 5x5 (x5) other ways to spend my week, so at the risk of starting the year with some controversy:
ReplyDeleteHow many folks here are fans of Sudoku and/ or KenKen? And can you explain the attraction?
Never do Sudoku or xwords. Never heard of KenKen. I always thought it was KenBarbie.
DeleteCan you explain the attraction of crosswords or acrostics or the NPR Sunday puzzle or the CarTalk puzzler. I guess it's like a computer in an idle loop: it's always doing something, just not always something useful.
DeleteI cancelled our local newspaper subscription over a month ago. The paper has been getting smaller and smaller with very little substance.
DeleteThe biggest thing I miss is the daily NYT Crossword. I may just get a subscription to it instead of the paper.
I often argue that we should scrap our subscription to the paper New York Times. A couple of weeks ago, I was glad that my wife prevailed. The Times included a big 30-plus puzzle bonus holiday insert, including a massive 50 x 50 crossword. It felt like a gift from Will, and was much appreciated.
DeleteJan: I've been doing crosswords for decades; I suppose traditional crosswords test your knowledge of various trivia, sort of like Jeopardy(!). Acrostics also have additional use of wordplay/ puns/ anagrams, etc.
DeleteBut I don't get the attraction to the Sudoku/ KenKen, the answer is always some combination of 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0, not necessarily in that order.
You could argue the same for crosswords (a-b-c etc) except those create elements of common knowledge, which is really all words are, and/ or create clever reuses of language.
By the way, the digital subscription to the NYT does include all their crosswords, you get them the day before, and you can use a timer to compare yourself to others. Though I think the fastest times are people who figure out the entire puzzle in advance, and spend that 90 seconds just filling in the blanks. I must confess I am still clumsy in filling out the digital squares.
As I make one final and desperate attempt to solve this, I keep looking ahead to how to notify NPR of my 'winning' answer.
ReplyDeleteMy first idea is to send the answer in by courier. After all, it is the most secure way, isn't it?
See the end of this week's post for another transmittal method for your answers.
ReplyDeleteWW - I like it, that's pretty good!! Maybe DT should stay up late with a chisel & tablet instead of twitter.
DeleteBTW, I liked your live stream video from last week!
Thanks, 68Charger. Luckily, many more live streams to come.
DeleteYes, anything but twittering away the early hours of the day. . .Could casting things in stone make him stop and think a bit? Cune-IForm overtaking the IPhone?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI finally did get an answer for this puzzle. Four of the names are on both lists. The fifth, while not on either list, looks and sounds valid.
DeleteMy answers may not be elegant but it seems to work.
Speaking of Word Woman's (who is aka Scientific Steph) fine Partial Ellipsis Of The Sun (PEOTS) blog (to which she linked, above), those of you who are still struggling with this week's NPR challenge may want to check out an early-2014 blog from the PEOTS archives. It offers an excellent boy's first name that I cannot find on any other internet name list!
ReplyDeleteJust click this link and scroll down to the Comments section. Then check out the comments at:
Jan 29, 2014, at 5:29 PM
Feb 1, 2014, at 10:54 AM
Feb 3, 2014, at 12:12 AM
I have not yet solved Will's puzzle by using this somewhat unusual name, but I am working on it.
LegoInTheFinalAnalysisMatHaveToStopFishingCutBaitAndJustTakeAGuessAtThisWeek'sWeekendEditionSundayAnswer
Thanks for that memory, Lego. Your next-to-last comment on the link above is classic dialogue that still makes me laugh, lo, these nearly three years later!
DeleteGuess good humorous writing just gets better with age.
Btw, I saw this fine young man at the library recently. He's in middle school now. No one ever forgets his name!
I guess it's akin to the name-remembering technique of say, picturing a "Jim" in a Jungle Gym. The 5-letter boys' name story/hook is built in to his every introduction.
Out of disrespect for this awful puzzle I thought I would break the rules and post my answer here now. Here it is posted below:
ReplyDeleteI have 4 answers, each one using 4 names on the lists and the fifth one obscure. One of my 5th names is KAREL, relatively common but not on either list. I will post tomorrow, but I am unable to post until around 3:00 pm EST.
ReplyDeleteMake that 6:00 pm EST.
DeleteA good name for Xmas time I suppose. He could go Kareling. But who really Kares? I never heard of this name and hope not to in the future either.
DeleteThe Czech writer Karel Čapek fits the bill; he is best known for bringing forth the term "robot" in his play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots); robot was actually created by his brother Josef.
DeleteSDB - you might enjoy reading about this Karel, he was a strong anti-fascist and Nobel nominee 7 times; he died before the Nazis could arrest him.
I guess were he alive today he would not be a fan of Gingrich.
DeleteI think if he were alive today he would not be a fan of the US.
DeleteExcept he'd like how we've all become robots.
Delete.....willingly marching to the showers.
DeleteI wake up thinking these are the last dying gasps of a structure that is collapsing under an infection of its own lunacy. And as often happens with a dying person, it is going through violent seizures as it tries in vain to cling to life/ power.
DeleteThis is not just from the party of Lincoln, the party of Clinton has done its share.
When I'm in an optimistic mood I can see the rise of a more mature and humane state; unfortunately I'm not optimistic very often, and usually see this dying behemoth metastasizing into something more venal or taking out a lot of innocents with it.
BRAVO! Well spoken.
DeleteSince November 8th I awake each and every morning with the overpowering feeling I am awaking into, not from, a nightmare. I now have a hard time motivating myself to arise to a new day, just to see all I have worked for to slip further and further away. I tell myself I of all people I know should be able to deal with this because I have been warning of its impending for many years now. No! It does not help. I always prayed I was wrong, but knew I was not wrong at all.
This country was based on a series of lies and criminal actions that caused the deaths of hoards of innocents and shows no signs of stopping this villainous behavior. Now we are also determined to destroy ourselves. The majority of its people are not going to be bothered with paying more than scant attention as long as they are convinced their infatuation with greed is still seeming to be a worthwhile goal within their reach. If and when they ever do wake up it will be far too late for it to matter.
Growing up in the fifties was strange. Not only did we have to put up with McCarthyism, but we also had to pretend to be afraid of the Bomb. But then on the other hand we always had something to laugh at, such as when the popular TV show, "Leave It To Beaver" first aired. It almost caused an international incident with Canada because so many Canadians thought it was an intentional slur on their country.
ReplyDeleteAnd calling the jingling of change in their pockets "Loonie Tunes" sealed the deal?
DeleteHere are two of the 253 answers I found, using Blaine's lists:
ReplyDeleteABRAM
BLANE
RANDY
ANDRE
MEYER
REECE
ERROL
ERNST
COSMO
ELTON
And here is the awk script I used. Awk is a text processing language that's included in Cygwin, a free package that provides a Unix-like environment for Windows PCs.
BEGIN {
i = 0
}
{
x[i++] = $0
}
END {
for (a = 0; a < i; ++a) {
q = x[a]
for (b = 0; b < i; ++b) {
r = x[b]
if (substr(r, 1, 1) != substr(q, 2, 1))
continue
for (c = 0; c < i; ++c) {
s = x[c];
if (substr(s, 1, 1) != substr(q, 3, 1))
continue
if (substr(s, 2, 1) != substr(r, 3, 1))
continue;
for (d = 0; d < i; ++d) {
t = x[d];
if (substr(t, 1, 1) != substr(q, 4, 1))
continue
if (substr(t, 2, 1) != substr(r, 4, 1))
continue
if (substr(t, 3, 1) != substr(s, 4, 1))
continue
for (e = 0; e < i; ++e) {
u = x[e];
if (substr(u, 1, 1) != substr(q, 5, 1))
continue
if (substr(u, 2, 1) != substr(r, 5, 1))
continue
if (substr(u, 3, 1) != substr(s, 5, 1))
continue
if (substr(u, 4, 1) != substr(t, 5, 1))
continue
print q, r, s, t, u
}
}
}
}
}
}
All my beautiful tab indents got eaten! Oh, well.
DeleteBeavers probably ate them.
DeleteHow gnaw-ty!
DeleteDam chewzy of them too!
DeleteDam (b)loggers, those beavers!
DeleteI say "Hats off to 'em."
DeleteA XXXXXXXXXX post.
Well, jan, that's awk-word.
DeleteBeen saving that all week :-).
Funny, the "dent" in "indent" and "rodent" has the same toothy origin. Along the same (von Ebner) lines, see Word Woman's latest blog post.
DeleteHow about those word origins (said with a toothy grin)?! Thanks for the link to PEOTS, jan.
DeleteNice job, jan. You had the winning answer. Sorry you weren't chosen this time
DeleteI wrote, "OK, I got an answer on this one, with a fifth name that is obscure but some guys have it. For now, over and out." That "over and out" is plumb wrong radio talk. If you expect a reply, you end your transmission with "over." If you are ending the conversation, you end your transmission with "out." The two are not properly used together. But the hint was to that other radio code word, "Roger," which formed the central crux of my answer:
ReplyDeleteABRAM
BRODY
ROGER
ADEMO
MYRON
OK, I admit I had never heard of "Ademo" before, but it is certainly "relatively familiar" relative to, say Adexo or Adego. It is the "[much!] less familiar" fifth name, but I did find, via Google, that it was the first name of some guys out there. I doubt that it is an acceptable answer, but I didn't want to hunt anymore! ---Rob
I came up with:
ReplyDeleteJULES
URIAH
LINDA
EADON
SHANE
Eadon is an Irish name and Linda can be a boys name. In fact, Linda was on both those lists as a boys name. An internet checked showed some people do consider Linda as a boys name. Go figure... So, it wasn't the greatest answer but it worked!!
That was a tough puzzle.
GREGG
ReplyDeleteRAMAL
EMILE
GALEN
GLENN
My five: ANGEL
ReplyDeleteNEALE
GAVIN
ELIAN
LENNY
I have heard of all of those names. But, I obviously didn't get the all important call. Oh well!
This is the best I can do! Each “word square” has four names from the lists.
ReplyDeleteHAKIM
AMARI
KAREL
IRENE
MILES
OSCAR
SHANE
CASEY
ANETE
REYES
OSCAR
SHANE
CAREY
ANETE
REYES
SCOTT
CASEY
OSCAR
TEAMO
TYRON
3x3 “word squares” are much easier:
SAM
ABE
MEL
I had RHETT
ReplyDeleteHARRY
ERROL
TROYE
TYLER
I thought of some of the above, but not all at once. I got four out of five to arrive at
ReplyDeleteCHUCK
HARRY
URIAH
CRAIG
KHYGA
OK, the last one is not a name, but at least I tried.
Happy New Year everyone!
Here's mine:
ReplyDeleteSCOTT
CORRY
ORVAL
TRACE
TYLER
This was indeed a difficult challenge. But after all this, who knows? Maybe KHYGA will catch on as a boy's name. It sounds African.
ISSAC
ReplyDeleteSTEVE
SEGER
AVERY
CERYL
All valid names per the interweb!
Well, if it's on the "interweb" it must be true. Let us not allow critical thinking to get in our way.
DeleteEDGAR
ReplyDeleteDIEGO
GEORG
AGREE
ROGER
that's the best i could do
I can imagine a conversation between Guess, Agree, Roger, Clarence, Victor, Hu, Wat, Idunno, and Yassir, but I'm not creative enough to compose it.
DeleteOops, I forgot Shirley.
DeleteIs it really true that Holcomb, Kansas is a Clutter of dead people?
ReplyDeleteI just uploaded this week's Puzzleria!
ReplyDeleteTen puzzles on our menus this week, including four that Rip Off Shortz.
You know the routine... click on the "Joseph Young's Puzzleria!" link on Blaine's PUZZLE LINKS.
LegoWhoMuses"SpeakingOfPuzzleLinks,Wasn'tWill'sGreen+Par+TeeChallengeFramLastWeekALinksPuzzle?
Here's the answer I sent to NPR:
ReplyDelete"BRENT
RUMOR
EMILE
NOLAN
TRENT
Unfortunately, "RUMOR", although a common word, is not a name. But that's the most effort I was willing to put into this horrible waste of time. I know there are a number of programmers out there that will write a brute-force script to solve this challenge. And from what I've heard, there is not an answer containing 5 common names. So I guess my official answer to your yes/no question is NO, you cannot construct a word square using 5 relatively familiar names, sorry."
It will be interesting to see what the winning answer is. Plus, I'd like to see how many entries, correct or incorrect, there were.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSome people on this blog will blubber about just about anything!
DeleteI'm a little skeptical, a local seafood restaurant was advertising a one week dinner special today. Just curious about the timing of it.
DeleteSDB - I pulled that post and then I figured the heck with it. After today's headlines I thought we needed some humor, so I reposted it.
Delete68Charger - This is 2017. There is no longer anything that is humorous.
DeleteAccording to the frequencies in my name list gathered from IMDB, the best word grid is KEMAL EMILE MILAN ALAIN LENNY. All names are in the top 440 names. But "best" depends on whether the frequencies of names in IMDB is representative of the population. I assume it's a fairly random sample. Also there's a lot of American bias in terms of what we'd consider a "common" name.
ReplyDeleteI had more than the usual amount of fun with the puzzle this week and I thank Will Shortz for allowing this type of puzzle to be featured on Weekend Edition Sunday.
FYI I have a file with over 2500 legitimate 5x5 grids of male first names, so if anyone has a friend with a five-letter name and you'd like to know if there exists a word grid with their name in it, let me know and I'll look it up for you. Who knows, could make a nice gift.
DeleteWALDO
ReplyDeleteAMEER
LEVAR
DEANE
ORREN
I think there may be one offering above that meets the "relatively common" standard.
ReplyDeleteWilly better accept any that have a more common name than his least one.
I got some things done this week with the time I saved by not working this flop.
A friend of mines 4th cousin, Trump Pence IV, (adopted), was tring to get his names to work in a grid but with no luck. He kind of has a big ego, though.
ReplyDeleteI bet he also eats shoots and leaves too.
DeleteHis parents would never take him to the National Zoo...
DeleteMy parents used to take my two younger brothers and me to the Seattle zoo yearly, but we always knew how to find our way back home.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNext week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from Mike Reiss, who's a writer/producer for The Simpsons. He's had a number of challenges on this program. Think of a two-word phrase you might see on a clothing label. Add two letters to the end of the first word, and one letter to the end of the second word. The result is the name of a famous writer. Who is it?
ReplyDeleteNot scary at all
DeleteAnother too easy puzzle about someone known by their middle name.
ReplyDelete